Vandalism of coin-operated public pay telephones is one of the biggest problems facing public and private telephone companies. Pay phones are exposed day and night to professional and amateur criminals who find the significant sums of money collected therein on a continuous basis, a serious temptation. The exposed and isolated nature of pay telephone installations renders the vandalism acts relative safe for the criminal.
A pay telephone has embossed on the upper part of its upper-housing or -casing front face a twelve-hole grid for receiving and guiding its twelve dial keys. The switch pad supporting the dial keys is mounted behind the grid. Vandals rip out the existing key pad grid, punch in the switch pad, and gain inside access to the Medeco lock securing the upper casing to the pay telephone main frame. The upper housing is then removed, giving access to the hopper which normally temporarily holds deposited coins until a call is completed or found non-completable. The hopper is then removed, giving access to the coin bank and enabling removal of the coins therein.
In another form of vandalism, the would-be thief pins a coin-switch relay in closed position. The coin-switch relay is located at the bottom of the hopper and has three positions. It is normally controlled through suitable electrical wiring connecting it to a terminal pad mounted behind the switching pad and that is suitably connected to the switching pad by other electrical wiring. One of the three positions of the coin-switch relay is the normal or closed position in which it holds the deposited coins until the call is either dialed and competed or the call is not completed. If the call is completed, the relay is energized to move the switch to a second position in which the deposited coins are allowed to drop into the telephone coin box or bank. If the call is not completed, the relay is energized to move the switch to the third position in which the deposited coins are dropped into the telephone coin-return mechanism or bucket.
A pay telephone includes a coin-return mechanism or bucket to which normally a would-be caller's money is returned when a call is not completed, as when the called number is busy. Vandals have discovered that all coins deposited in a telephone, for both incompleted and completed calls, can be appropriated to themselves via the coin-return mechanism. They achieve this by pinning the coin-switch relay in closed position.
Before a regularly-scheduled telephone company coin pick-up time, the vandal returns to retrieve the coins deposited since the pinning. He first removes the pin. He then goes "off-hook", and immediately hangs up. The coin-operated telephone now work as it should, and "return current" comes out to the coin telephone from the "central office". The "return current" operates the coin-switch relay to move it to the third position in which it allows all coins in the hopper to drop under the influence of gravity to the coin return bucket. All of the coins, for both incompleted and completed calls, which were deposited during the period the coin switch relay was pinned, will now be available to the returning vandal who rifles the coin return bucket for its contents. The pin may now be reapplied, or it may be left off until after the next telephone company collection visit to allow the collection of a few coins in the telephone coin box and not alert the company to the fraud being practiced.
Thus both the unsuccessful callers and the phone company are defrauded of their rightful monies. In addition, the phone company is subjected to the ill will of unsuccessful callers who do not recover their coins.
Pinning is accomplished by drilling of the telephone upper housing or casing to extend a wire through the drilled hole to gain access to the coin-switch vane.
In a variation of this form of vandalism, vandals insert a bare electrically-conductive wire through the newly drilled hole, and touch a terminal on the rear of the terminal pad with the wire to ground the coin-switch relay to the casing as disclosed using a lock in patent application "Terminal Guard" being filed by the instant inventors concurrently herewith. The grounded relay thereupon assumes a condition in which the coin-switch is in its closed position in which it holds-up all subsequently deposited coins. Again periodically the vandal returns to retrieve the coins deposited. He first removes the ground to the terminal pad terminal. He then inserts a coin, dials a number, and immediately hangs up. The coin-operated telephone now works as it should and energizes the coin switch relay to return the vandal's coin. Only this time, not merely is the vandal's coin sent to the coin return mechanism, but also all of the coins, for both incompleted and completed calls, which were deposited during the period the coin-switch relay was grounded. The coin return mechanism is now rifled for its contents. The ground may now be reapplied, or it may be left off until after the next telephone company collection visit.
In still another form of vandalism, the telephone removable coin box wherein coins for completed calls are collected, is pried off. A suitable sharp tool, such as a screwdriver, is inserted at a juncture to overcome a lock and force the coin box out.
In yet another from of vandalism, the telephone coin-return mechanism or bucket is ripped out to make retrieval of deposited coins for calls not completed, difficult. The ripping out may be done by inserting a suitable tool, such as a crowbar or large screwdriver, into the coin-return bucket and pushing down on the crowbar outer end, using as a fulcrum the lower edge of the upper housing or casing about the bucket opening.